Kactuar

Kactuar(サポテンダー, Sapotendā?, lit. Caktuar), also known as Cactuar, Flowering Cactuar, and Cactuar King, is a recurring enemy in the series. It is oftentimes a weaker version of the Cactuar, oftentimes being confused for the Cactuar but sometimes appears as a stronger version of the prickly foe. Much like its tougher brethren, Kactuars are capable of attacking with 1000 Needles and fleeing from battle, but are less durable than the Cactuar due to low HP. As with the rest of the Cactuar family, they often have extremely high Defense and Magic Defense stats to offset their low HP.

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Kactuar's first appearance, known as the Cactuar, was within the Corel Prison, found rarely within the sprawling desert area of the dungeon. It is an early source of gil, dropping 10,000 gil each time it's defeated, but meager EXP and AP. It is not to be confused with the Cactuer, which is the actual Cactuar for the game, fought at the solitary island southwest of Cosmo Canyon.

Two versions of the Kactuar exists within the game, known as the Kactuar, fought during Missions 3-13 and 10-1-1, and Kactuer, fought during Mission 10-1-3. Common to the Cactuar family, both versions possess extremely high Vitality and Spirit, but very low HP, making them not too difficult to defeat with the right tools.

The Cactuar King is the strongest version of the Cactuar in the game, fought at the Monster Arena after collecting at least one of each fiend at the Thunder Plains. It posses sky high defenses as well as immunity to all elements, is extremely evasive, and counters all attacks with 10000 Needles, in addition to attacking normally with it and the OHKO ability 99,999 Needles.

The Flowering Cactuar is an enemy fought at the Faultwarrens at the Salamandrine Path (D2) area. It will always open the battle with a barrage of high-level spells before using Flee if it is not pacified before its combo ends.

Flowering Cactuar returns as an enemy fought at the Archylte Steppe -Year Unknown- at the Sanctorium and the Plains of Eternity (Sunny). It fights identically to its previous incarnation, and once caught it is renamed to Cactrot.

The Japanese name サポテンダー (Sapotendā?) is based on the Japanese name for "Cactuar" (サボテンダー, Sabotendā?), replacing the dakuten of ボ (bo?) with the handakuten of ポ (po?). This may imply that this is a fake Cactuar. This may be a joke on the fact the name Cactuar itself derives from it being a fake cactus.